Milo

October 9th

Pull yourself together

Yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness. Romans 6:13–22 .

I cannot save and sanctify myself; I cannot atone for sin; I cannot redeem the world; I cannot make right what is wrong, pure what is impure, holy what is unholy. That is all the sovereign work of God. Have I faith in what Jesus Christ has done? He has made a perfect Atonement, am I in the habit of constantly realizing it? The great need is not to do things, but to believe things. The Redemption of Christ is not an experience, it is the great act of God which He has performed through Christ, and I have to build my faith upon it. If I construct my faith on my experience, I produce that most unscriptural type, an isolated life, my eyes fixed on my own whiteness. Beware of the piety that has no presupposition in the Atonement of the Lord. It is of no use for anything but a sequestered life; it is useless to God and a nuisance to man. Measure every type of experience by our Lord Himself. We cannot do anything pleasing to God unless we deliberately build on the presupposition of the Atonement.
The Atonement of Jesus has to work out in practical, unobtrusive ways in my life. Every time I obey, absolute Deity is on my side, so that the grace of God and natural obedience coincide. Obedience means that I have banked everything on the Atonement, and my obedience is met immediately by the delight of the supernatural grace of God.
Beware of the piety that denies the natural life, it is a fraud. Continually bring yourself to the bar of the Atonement—where is the discernment of the Atonement in this thing, and in that?

October 9

“Therefore will the Lord wait, that he may be gracious unto you.” (Isaiah 30:18.)

WHERE showers fall most, there the grass is greenest. I suppose the fogs and mists of Ireland make it “the Emerald Isle”; and whenever you find great fogs of trouble, and mists of sorrow, you always find emerald green hearts; full of the beautiful verdure of the comfort and love of God. O Christian, do not thou be saying, “Where are the swallows gone? They are gone; they are dead.” They are not dead; they have skimmed the purple sea, and gone to a far-off land; but they will be back again by and by. Child of God, say not the flowers are dead; say not the winter has killed them, and they are gone. Ah, no! though winter hath coated them with the ermine of its snow; they will put up their heads again, and will be alive very soon. Say not, child of God, that the sun is quenched, because the cloud hath hidden it. Ah, no; he is behind there, brewing summer for thee; for when he cometh out again, he will have made the clouds fit to drop in April showers, all of them mothers of the sweet May flowers. And oh! above all, when thy God hides His face, say not that He hath forgotten thee. He is but tarrying a little while to make thee love Him better; and when He cometh, thou shalt have joy in the Lord, and shalt rejoice with joy unspeakable. Waiting exercises our grace; waiting tries our faith; therefore, wait on in hope; for though the promise tarry, it can never come too late.—C. H. Spurgeon.

“Oh, every year hath its winter,
And every year hath its rain—
But a day is always coming
When the birds go north again.

“When new leaves swell in the forest,
And grass springs green on the plain,
And alders’ veins turn crimson—
And the birds go north again.

“Oh, every heart hath its sorrow,
And every heart hath its pain—
But a day is always coming
When the birds go north again.

“’Tis the sweetest thing to remember,
If courage be on the wane,
When the cold, dark days are over—
Why, the birds go north again.”

9 OCTOBER (PREACHED 1770)

Asleep on duty

‘But Peter and they that were with him were heavy with sleep …’ Luke 9:32
SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: Matthew 26:36–46

They were heavy with sleep. If this had not been recorded we should have little expected that, on such an affecting and extraordinary occasion, the disciples should be overpowered with sleep. These same persons were afterwards chosen to be witnesses of his agony, and then they slept again. Though they loved their Lord, yet they could not watch with him when he took them to be spectators of his glory and of his sufferings. We may consider this as a proof of their infirmity. The flesh is weak. Perhaps they were weary with their journey and in want of rest. The natural imperfections of our frame, and which are not sinful as we usually understand the word, greatly indispose and hinder us from the due improvement of our spiritual opportunities. It is the case with many. Their love to the ordinances and a desire to obtain some glimpse of the Lord, makes them glad to appear in his courts, and perhaps they come from a considerable distance. But when there, they are heavy to sleep. If this is mourned over, and striven against, people should not be so distressed for it, as if they had committed a sin. Yet it is a cause of humiliation. It is the fruit and effect of that sin which has defiled and enfeebled us in every part. We did not come thus, heavy, languid and stupid, out of the hands of our Maker at first. But now the believer finds the body a clog and an impediment in his best opportunities of waiting upon the Lord.

FOR MEDITATION: Alas! the many instances I can recollect in which I dallied and trifled with dangerous temptations, so that if thy mercy had not watched over me when I was sleeping in the midst of my enemies, they had surely prevailed and triumphed over me.
Annotated Letters to a Wife, 4 August 1794

SERMON SERIES: ON THE TRANSFIGURATION, NO. 6 [1/3], LUKE 9:32–33

October 8th

The exclusiveness of Christ

Come unto Me. Matthew 11:28.

Is it not humiliating to be told that we must come to Jesus! Think of the things we will not come to Jesus Christ about. If you want to know how real you are, test yourself by these words—“Come unto Me.” In every degree in which you are not real, you will dispute rather than come, you will quibble rather than come, you will go through sorrow rather than come; you will do anything rather than come the last lap of unutterable foolishness—“Just as I am.” As long as you have the tiniest bit of spiritual impertinence, it will always reveal itself in the fact that you are expecting God to tell you to do a big thing, and all He is telling you to do is to “come.”
“Come unto Me.” When you hear those words you will know that something must happen in you before you can come. The Holy Spirit will show you what you have to do, anything at all that will put the axe at the root of the thing which is preventing you from getting through. You will never get further until you are willing to do that one thing. The Holy Spirit will locate the one impregnable thing in you, but He cannot budge it unless you are willing to let Him.
How often have you come to God with your requests and gone away with the feeling—“Oh well, I have done it this time!’ And yet you go away with nothing, whilst all the time God has stood with outstretched hands not only to take you, but for you to take Him. Think of the invincible, unconquerable, unwearying patience of Jesus—“Come unto Me.”

October 8

“Do not begin to be anxious.” (Phil. 4:6, P. B. V.)

NOT a few Christians live in a state of unbroken anxiety, and others fret and fume terribly. To be perfectly at peace amid the hurly-burly of daily life is a secret worth knowing. What is the use of worrying? It never made anybody strong; never helped anybody to do God’s will; never made a way of escape for anyone out of perplexity. Worry spoils lives which would otherwise be useful and beautiful. Restlessness, anxiety, and care are absolutely forbidden by our Lord, who said: “Take no thought,” that is, no anxious thought, “saying what shall we eat, or what shall we drink, or wherewithal shall we be clothed?” He does not mean that we are not to take forethought and that our life is to be without plan or method; but that we are not to worry about these things. People know you live in the realm of anxious care by the lines on your face, the tones of your voice, the minor key in your life, and the lack of joy in your spirit. Scale the heights of a life abandoned to God, then you will look down on the clouds beneath your feet.
—Rev. Darlow Sargeant.
It is always weakness to be fretting and worrying, questioning and mistrusting. Can we gain anything by it? Do we not unfit ourselves for action, and unhinge our minds for wise decision? We are sinking by our struggles when we might float by faith.
Oh, for grace to be quiet! Oh, to be still and know that Jehovah is God! The Holy One of Israel must defend and deliver His own. We may be sure that every word of His will stand, though the mountains should depart. He deserves to be confided in. Come, my soul, return unto thy rest, and lean thy head upon the bosom of the Lord Jesus.—Selected.

“Peace thy inmost soul shall fill
Lying still!”